Saturday, July 31, 2010

Harry Redknapp Fully Criticized the FA over England Friendly against Hungary

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp has criticized the country’s Football Federation (The FA) for arranging a friendly match against Hungary the same week Premier League season begins.

Redknapp can not understand what the benefit of this friendly match is when new season kicks off in few days. Tottenham would face Manchester City just three days after the friendly match on 11 August and he is utterly disappointed to know that he would lose some of his key players for a week just before the opening match against City at White Hart Lane.

Tottenham had 5 players in England’s World Cup squad and it is pretty much clear that Capello would call a number of Tottenham players for the Hungary match too. So, Harry Redknapp’s anger is pretty much justifiable. Missing the likes of Aaron Lennon, Peter Crouch from training for a week would be a huge blow to the North London club who also need to prepare for the Champions League qualifier.

Redknapp said to the media, “Can someone tell me why you have an international week the week the season is starting?’ fumed Redknapp. ‘Can someone tell me what that is all about? They’ve just been away as a group together to the World Cup.

They’re probably sick of the sight of each other and now they’re going to have an international week before the first week of the season, before we play Manchester City and a European qualifier…

… Why? What’s the point of it? A meaningless friendly. The week before the season, when we should be training, working, getting organised for the first game, they won’t be here.”

It seems Tottenham boss really has some logical points that FA officials should consider. It has not been two months England players played together in South Africa. It is true that England’s Euro 2012 qualifying campaign is going to begin from September and Capello needs few matches to have a final look over his squad.

However, in that case, the FA should have organized the match at least two weeks before the start of the Premier League. Both the league and friendly matches are important, but the federation needs to be smart while scheduling.

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